Nightmares
by Vendra
Summary: "Two people from the blood of Hylia are continually reborn. One holds incredible wisdom, the other, courage. Together they forever hold Hyrule together against the one who holds power."
1. Chapter 1 - Enter Story

A/N

Just so you guys know, this is supposed to be a different generation of Link and Zelda, it is not based off any particular Zelda game, but will likely reference several.

Onwards!

  
  


Oh. Here again.

Zelda floated in an oblivion of nothingness. She turned her head, looking for something to see, to get a grasp of position, motion, and a multitude of other things. There was nothing to see though. Just the darkness all around her, pushing, reaching, grasping at her. Zelda suddenly felt very claustrophobic.

And she hadn't even started.

Zelda felt -no, sensed – something whip past her, imaginary wind brushing her face. She whipped her head around to find it. Friend or foe, it would be something to get a grasp on in this void. She knew it was here with her, but she couldn't see it, not yet. She would see it soon.

Just not yet.

Zelda heard a deep mirthless laugh, felt hot breath on her neck. She turned herself around, or tried to; it was hard to know where she was facing in this abyss. Once again, she saw nothing.

Well, this is new.

It wasn't there. Nothing was.

Which was almost as terrifying as when there was.

Zelda looked around frantically, ignoring the crawling feeling of being reached for. She had to find it. She had to. Goddesses knew what would happen now, it wasn't there it wasn't there it wasn't there!

She sensed something huge  flying around her in the darkness. She couldn't see it and it was driving her mad! The imaginary wind was building to an insane climax, whipping her hair into her face, making her wish she'd braided it. Pulling the hair out of her eyes as best she could, Zelda strained her eyes, looking into nothing.

It was there.

No it wasn't.

It something else.

It was big. It was huge. It was bigger than Death Mountain and the Hylian Ridge put together. It was absolutely massive.

It looked at her.

Zelda stared in hardly contain fear and awe at the beast, who's eyes glowed redder than the sunset, and who's body seemed to be darker than the void she was in. It was so dark that she couldn't make out what it really was. And she was afraid, she was so uncontrollably afraid.

"I'm coming…"

It spoke with such malice that Zelda almost broke down crying right there. It was so enormous, so unstoppable…

It was pure evil.

* * *

Zelda sat up suddenly, scarcely containing her screams for mercy. She stopped herself, not wanting her parents to come running, much less Impa. Impa was so over sensitive to anything Zelda did, sometimes she thought she'd suffocate. She looked around her room, checking everything. Her royal garb was still lying over the back of her chair, almost thoughtlessly dropped there. The curtains were shut tight. Same with the closet. Her light was still flickering away; she must have been so tired she forgot to put it out. Her sheets were tangled around her legs; normal after the nightmares.

Zelda sighed and put her head in her hands, before jerking back at the pinch of the gem on her headdress. She sighed again. Yes, she was very tired, she hated the headdress more than most things. She undid the clip in the back and took it off, placing it on the nightstand beside her, even though she probably wouldn't get to sleep again until it was time to get up and put it back on. She put her head in her hands again, letting her hair fall around her, unhindered by the headdress.

The nightmare had been different this time. Usually she would turn around and be so shocked at the giant thing in front of her that she woke up. This time, though, she saw it. And it told her it was coming…

Zelda threw the sheets off her legs and slid out of bed. She rushed to the window and almost ripped the curtains wide open before she remembered her state of dress. She settled for poking her head out of the curtains. 

Nothing. No monster was coming. The day was just starting up for Hyrule; a few farmers were up early, starting their harvest. It was full swing in the harvest season, and tons of workers were out there harvesting. Good for them.

Zelda flopped back on her bed after checking that the curtains were closed tightly. She picked up the book on her nightstand. The History of Hyrule. Bleh. She threw it across the room, allowing a satisfied smile as it hit the floor with a muffled thump. She hated the royal training as soon as it started. It started when she was ten, and she was, she was fourteen now. Four years of it. She hated being cooped up in a room with a tutor for the better part of the day. It was boring as wherever people go when they die. She much preferred the self-defence lessons that Impa gave her, even if she was overprotective. 

She began tracing imaginary lines on her arms and the blanket that she had untangled and pulled up over her again. She ended up drawing triangles mostly. She didn't know why, and she was to tired to think straight right now. It wasn't long before she fell asleep again, the light still burning.

* * *

Link let the hammer in his hand fall on to the heated lump of metal that he was slowly shaping into a sword. It hit with a loud clang and a couple of sparks joined the noise before falling down to the ground and slowly going out. He did this a few more times before taking it over to the oven and reheating it with the tongs.

He looked out over the rest of the people sweating over their work in the shop, wiping a bead of his own sweat away from his eye. Not that there was really much to look out over; the shop was only about ten meters from entrance wall to the back wall where he was standing by the oven, and about twice that in the other direction. But to Link, this was pretty much home, as he spent more time here than at his house closer to the edge of Hyrule. It was his way of making a living, and he enjoyed it.

He would have enjoyed it more if the imposing war would allow for more time to sleep. But, that was just him.

He pulled the metal out of the oven and brought it back over to his worktable. The hammer made several more clangs, adding to the cacophony that was this metal shop, before Link stepped back to look at the emerging sword.

"Hey!"

Link looked up at the fairy who was looking at his sword's drawings thoughtfully. He had almost forgotten about Navi, she had been rather quiet today. "What's up?" he asked, looking at the area of the drawing that Navi was drawing his attention to.

"Shouldn't this branch be more curved like this?" she asked, dragging her finger - and subsequently her entire body – across the sword drawing but slightly above the given curve of the sword, which looked like a double helix.

Link almost grinned; Navi wasn't really one for swords, and yet here she was asking questions about them. "Not really, because if it did, then it wouldn't be very structurally strong, and would end up being more of a club, where you would use the flat edge of it." he explained, pointing at the drawing as he spoke and trying very hard not to start gesturing and making a fool of himself.

"Oh," the fairy said quietly, her glowing brightening the slightest bit. After a couple seconds, she added, "This is a really strange weapon."

"I agree," Link nodded. It was among the stranger swords he'd been asked to forge. It wasn't exactly the best design for fighting. He thought it might just be an ornamental sword, to be hung somewhere in the castle. He was fine with that. It was just another sword made in the shop. He really needed to be making swords for the war, so he'd be happy to get this done.

A couple hours later, the lunch bell – which had been forged particularly large and loud, considering the circumstances – rang. Along with the rest of the metal workers, Link pulled a small wooden box out of under the table he was working at. He followed everyone as they walked out to the edge of the shop, where they all sat down to eat. Link, however, kept walking and turned left on the road – away from the castle – and walked towards the outskirts of the city, Navi flitting along behind him.

Eventually they reached a small hill with a rather large tree on it. It overlooked a large field of lush, green grass, with one or two butterflies fluttering around, sipping the nectar from the odd flower, staying longer at the Silent Princess patch that the princess planted when she was younger. Link sat with his back to the tree, looking out over the field. He set the box beside him and pulled a sandwich out of it. Navi landed on his head, and he thought he felt her start fiddling with his hair.

They sat like that for a while, talking lightly about several things, enjoying the beautiful weather, and – for Link at least – the food. He had finished the lunch he had brought, and was wondering what the slight noise he could here from the city was when Navi suddenly stopped talking and sat very still.

"What is it?" Link inquired.

Navi didn't respond for a while, but just sat there, her wings twitching slightly. Then she finally spoke. "I thought I heard the princess saying something, but directly into my head. It was weird."

Link sat and thought about this for a second before asking what she said, completely out of curiosity; he was pretty sure no Hylian was telepathic.

"She sounded kind of panicked, she said: 'To anyone who can hear this, please help! I'm in the castle in my room, I'm stuck, there's a fire, and I, I… please, somebody help!' Then she was cut off by something, I'm not sure what she said after."

Navi had to grab Link's hair tightly, as he suddenly jumped up and turned around to look at the city. Sure enough, they could see that there was a cloud of smoke ascending from below Hyrule Castle's tower. A rather large cloud of smoke.

No one would realise that there was someone stuck in a room in there.

No one else had a fairy that could pick up apparent telepathic messages.

No one else would know.

No one else would save her.

Navi held on tighter as Link grabbed his box and started running.

Link threw his lunch box into the metal working shop, vaguely noticing a disapproving look from his boss. It wasn't the first time he'd been late back from lunch. It was however the first time he had kept running past the shop. In the back of his head, he was glad he couldn't see his boss's look right now; he'd probably stop him and make him explain, losing Link precious time.

When Link got to the castle, he finally realized the magnitude of the fire. It had almost engulfed the entire castle. This couldn't have happened by accident. There was almost the entire Royal Guard present, throwing buckets of water on the fire.

"We can't go in there, we'll burn to death!" Navi stated, Link nodding in agreement, looking around for something else. He saw a curtain fluttering in the wind through a broken window. Running up to it, brushing past several confused guards, he ripped it off the curtain rod. He continued to look around, explaining to Navi. 

"Heat creates an updraft. With the amount of heat in this fire, I should able to float, if I can get to somewhere above the fire." Navi understood and began looking around as well.

"Hey, what about the awning in front of the door? It should be thin enough to let heat through." Link agreed, and shoved his way past the amassing guards, who were probably trying to remove him from the scene now. Running up to the awning, he almost stopped as the heat hit him in waves. It was intense, hotter than even the oven in the shop. It was definitely started with magic, no fire could be this hot naturally. However, it did create an even better heat base.

Handing the curtain to Navi, Link stuck his boots and fingers into crevices in the stone wall of the castle, and then scrambled up it to get away from the pursuing guards. Hopefully they wouldn't start shooting at him on his float up. That would be… problematic at best. Beginning to sweat, Link pulled himself on to the awning.

"Navi, I need you to fly up there and find which room is the princess's, then come back and let me know." The fairy probably nodded; Link couldn't see through her bright blue glow. Nevertheless, Navi shot upwards in search of the princess's room.

Link busied himself first with testing the curtain. He held it above his head experimentally. To his surprise, he flew upwards a couple of feet immediately. He quickly pulled the curtain down, not wanting to get too high. He then started kicking the guards who tried to climb up onto the awning back down. It was only about a two meter drop, their armor would save them.

Navi came back finally. "Her room is straight up and a little to the right. Her presence is stronger there." Link nodded, kicked one more guard off and jumped off the right edge of the awning, spreading the curtain. He begged the goddesses that this would work.

Link began to ascend.

After not feeling the ground hit his feet for a while, Link slowly opened his eyes. He first saw Navi bouncing up and down ecstatically. "You did it! You're flying, Link!" she chirruped. Link then decided foolishly to look down.

Yes, yes he was flying.

Before he realized what he was doing, Link let go of one end of the curtain, and started to fall. He started to panic even more than he already was, as is normal for someone falling a hundred feet into flames. Navi, realizing what was happening, dashed down and grabbed the unattended end of the curtain, and attempted to hold Link aloft with her own strength. She only managed to slow his fall. However, with the end now within reach, Link grabbed as hard as he could, and managed to start ascending again.

Navi dropped down to sit on Link's shoulder, obviously out of breath. "Don't look down again, alright?" she huffed. Link didn't respond, but Navi knew him well enough to know he agreed.

After a few minutes of flying, Navi hopped off Link again and floated a couple windows up. "This is her room," she called back down to Link. "But the window is closed and locked."

"Not a problem." Link said, still sweating with the heat. Another thirty seconds later, he had floated to be level with the window. Then he kicked it in, to the absolute horror of Navi.

"Link! That's royal property! You can't just go around breaking it like you own it!" she yelped.

"In case you haven't noticed, the entire castle is burning down. This window would have been broken anyways." Link sighed as Navi turned her back and huffed. He swung himself a little, trying to get a little forward momentum, then gritted his teeth and let go of the curtain.

He just barely caught the window ledge.

Crawling in through the window, he felt the heat increase. Looking around, he saw that the bedroom was quite nice, but that was to be expected. It was Hyrule Castle. He also noticed that there was no one in the room.

"Where is she?" Navi sputtered, flying around the room faster than normal. "Maybe this isn't the right room…" However, Link showed Navi that it indeed was the right room, as Princess Zelda was written on the door in nice, cursive, Hyrulean letters.

Link walked back into the room to look for clues. Or attempted to. Instead he was punched across the room into the dresser, knocking several ornaments off the wall in the process.

A/N

Here we go.

Hey everyone! I finally wrote some more stuff! I started writing this because I actually got reviews from people I didn't know in person on my last fic, (You can read it here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12547586/1/Stronger-Than-You) which was really encouraging! If you guys are reading this, thanks a lot. You really helped motivate me to write this.

Also, this chapter has 2,674 words, which make it the longest thing I've ever written! Yay! Wait, I'm back from editing. That number has increased! Double yay!

I'm kind of hoping to get a sort of schedule for this going if anyone likes it, so I hope to put about one a week out. But don't quote me on that.

See you all next chapter!

Credit goes to Alderion-Al from DeviantArt for the cover.


	2. Chapter 2 - Escape

**Hey everyone!**

 **Here's the next chapter. It's shorter than the last one, but the ending just fit so well. Sorry.**

 **Onwards!**

* * *

 _Where am I?_

Link floated in a void, seemingly unable to control his movement. Something about this seemed familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. It reminded him somehow of his childhood, strangely enough. He was pretty sure that he didn't go around floating around in pitch black voids whenever he had a chance as a child. That would be weird.

 _Navi?_

Link spun himself around, or tried to; he couldn't tell with it being so black. He couldn't see her anywhere. His little blue fairy wasn't here. He must be dreaming; Navi hated leaving his side, it made her feel safer.

 _Okay, this is a dream._

 _So what's the topic?_

Link thought he heard something moving around behind him. Or was it above him? Sound really meant nothing here either. He strained his eyes, trying to get a glimpse of the entity moving around his dream. He wanted to get rid of it; it was far too early to get up yet. Link had a strange feeling that he was being watched.

 _It's hot here._ Really _hot. Weird._

Spinning himself again, Link found what he was looking for. To be honest, he was surprised that he'd managed to miss it. It was just kind of a beast the size of a mountain.

For some reason, he felt no fear. He did feel a twinge of recognition, though.

"Why do I feel like I know you from somewhere?" Link managed to ask. "And why are you disturbing my sleep? I was fine without you here."

" _Well you're surprisingly coherent, compared to my last subject._ " the beast rumbled in a low voice. Link almost _felt_ it's voice.

"That didn't answer my question." Link would have tapped his foot, had there been any ground to tap it on.

" _I've come to tell you that you really should wake up. I find that if you continue laying where you are that you'll end up being slightly… dead. And I honestly don't really need you dead yet."_

"What?" Link muttered, slightly exasperated as to why a giant mountain-beast in his imagination would need him in any way.

" _You'll figure it out eventually."_ the beast rumbled slowly, appearing to fade slightly, as if Link was waking up. " _And you_ do _know me. Just… not in your current state of mind._ " Link could have sworn he chuckled.

"Hey, wait!" he yelled, the beast fading away and the blackness becoming a flickering gray. It was too late, though, he was already waking up.

* * *

Link opened his eyes slowly, closing one again quickly as a drop of sweat attempted to greet his eyeball. He lay on his front, on the hard ground, gazing at a flickering flame of fire.

 _Well, that explained the heat…_

Suddenly the situation hit him. He realized that he most definitely did not sleep here of his own accord; he must have been knocked out when he hit the wall. He looked around for something he could use as a weapon, and listened to Navi's tinkling voice argue with the jerk who punched them. Why were they even in the castle? It should have been evacuated.

"Look at what you've done!" he heard Navi yell, which wasn't much louder than her normal speaking voice. "You've knocked him out, and he won't wake up before he dies in the fire!"

"Good." said an unknown voice, which Link assumed to be Miss Punch; it was a woman's voice. "It'll save us the time of executing him."

Link spotted a long silver object laying on the ground not far in front of him. He recognized it as a sword that he'd forged about a month ago. He was sure it could be a weapon, even though it was ornamental. He slowly reached out towards it, trying not to draw attention to himself.

"Execute him?" he heard Navi say. He almost had the sword now. "What in Hyrule for?"

Link agreed with Navi. Other than a rescue break-and-enter, which rarely got people executed here, je couldn't think of anything he'd done. He grabbed the sword and lifted it a couple centimeters off the ground, then began to pull it back towards him. After this, though, he may need to be executed. But he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"For starting the fire, obviously." Miss Punch explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "What in Hyrule else would we execute him for?"

Link had the sword now, he was coiling himself up for a spring at whoever was talking to Navi. He really wished he could actually see Miss Punch; it would be easier to get her down if he knew where she was.

" _What?_ " Navi shrieked, clearly distressed. "He didn't start the fire! Goddesses, why would he do that?"

 _Din give me strength._

"To steal th-"

"KYAAAAA!" Link flung himself towards the source of Miss Punch's voice, swinging his sword downwards as he went.

He would have hit her.

He actually would have killed her. His leap had brought him around so that his blade would cut her clean in half. He was surprised. He'd never even wielded a sword before.

But she was trained.

As soon as Link jumped, she had started into her own jump, hers a backflip. It was so fluid that Link thought that she knew that he was going to jump at her before he even decided to. Now she was standing half a meter from where he had cut through thin air, standing in a combat pose, compact bomb in hand.

He recognized her. She was the former captain of the Royal Guard. She trained them to be deadly warriors. Then when the princess came along, she had been removed as captain and been put into service as the princess's bodyguard.

She was Impa.

 _Oh, goddesses this just got a LOT worse._

 _DingivemestrengthNayrugivemewisdomFaroregivemecouragehelphelphelpHELP!_

Link watched as Impa raised the arm that was holding the compact bomb. He raised his sword, well aware that he couldn't get over to her in time to get the bomb away from her. Thus, there was only one chance of survival left. It was going to be tight.

Impa threw the bomb towards him.

And Link hit it back.

Surprised, Impa barely moved her head in time to dodge the returned bomb. They both watched as it took out a balcony across the hallway. It had already been weakened by the fire, meaning that the bomb hardly had anything to do to reduce it to splinters.

"Look," Link started as Impa turned to face him again. "I didn't start this fire. I was on the outskirts of Hyrule when it started. I came to save the princess from the fire." At Impa's questioning stare, Link gave her a quick run through how he came to float into the princess's room. He left out the less important details in favor of speed, given the circumstances. "The only problem with this plan," Link continued after finishing his account of things, "Is that the princess doesn't appear do be in the castle at the moment. Which is good for her. However, if you haven't noticed, the three of us are still in a quickly burning castle."

Impa nodded, accepting his explanation for the moment. There were more important things immediately at hand. "Come, we need to get moving." she began. "There is a staircase that will get us to the roof not far from here." After that, she ran off.

Link watched her go, then turned back to Navi, who appeared to be attempting to save one of the curtains from the first flickering flames in the room. "I thought you might need another curtain; if you're going to the roof, you're still going to be stuck in the castle." Link smiled.

"Good thinking, Navi." He assisted the fairy in taking the curtain off, then turned to go. He left the sword behind; he was pretty sure he could trust Impa.

After climbing several flights of stairs, Link finally found a trapdoor to the roof. Pushing it open, he climbed through. "You certainly took your time getting up here." Impa muttered from behind him. He turned around, showing her the new curtain.

"I stopped to get this." he explained. "Even though we're on the roof doesn't mean that we're in the clear. We need to get off this castle before it collapses."

Impa nodded, stepping to the edge of the roof and looking down, while Link began to figure out how to get both of them off. He started to hear beams splitting down below him. Looking the curtain over again, Link noticed that it was almost twice the size. Perhaps if both of them held on to an end…

Link felt the roof under him start to crack, and just barely dived off the area that collapsed, wood splinters falling down into the bowels of the castle, never to be seen again. His mind hardly even registered the fact that the rest of the roof was similarly giving way and falling. He leapt over one of the smaller holes and ran towards Impa. "Okay, I need you to hold this end," Link managed to spit out hurriedly. "Then, on my mark, we're both going to jump." Impa's eyebrows raised slightly at this, but she nodded silently in agreement.

"One,"

Navi bounced around nervously, watching the roof quickly collapsing.

"Two,"

Impa tensed her legs, ready to jump.

"Three,"

Link did the same.

" _Mark!_ "

The two of them, followed quickly by Navi, jumped sideways off the edge, narrowly avoiding the hole that had almost opened beneath them. With the weight of both Impa and Link – and Navi, who was sitting on top the makeshift glider – the trio began to slowly sink against the updraft that the fire below created. Impa's eyes widened when she saw that the plan was actually working. Link internally grinned as well; he was sure that they were roasted Cucco.

The tower above them began to fall towards them.

"Hylia above," Link muttered angrily. Apparently, they were out of the literal fire, but into the figurative frying pan. They were back to being roast Cucco.

Impa looked up and saw it as well. However, she also saw something else. "Try to move us to your right about three feet!" she yelled over to her companion. Link didn't question anything, and began swinging himself to the right. Together, they quickly moved themselves far enough to the right. Whatever far enough was supposed to do. The tower kept falling, and Link prepared himself for death. Navi flew down to Link's head and gripped his hair, set on dying with Link; without him, there was no other reason to live, at least to her.

Death didn't come.

Link watched in astonishment as they flew right through a giant hole in the wall, through the overturned main room of the tower, into the princess's room, and out the window that he had kicked in earlier.

After a couple moments of stunned and relieved silence, Navi spoke up. "I guess it pays off to break _some_ things after all." Link smiled as they floated to the ground.

* * *

 **I apologize about the first chapter of this; it was supposed to be formatted and everything, but saying that a file is a Docx makes it dissapear on the website, and then the app just decided to delete the formatting. Screw you, app. Hopefully this one works.**

 **I've got a big convention to go to next week, and then I'm going on vacation, so I'll try to keep getting these out on a semi-regular basis, but it'll be harder, so no guarantees.**

 **See ya'll next time!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Journey 1

The second that Impa touched the ground, she was issuing orders – getting more guards to douse the flaming building, sending other guards out to give an evacuation order, ushering the disheveled king and queen into a carriage bound for Kakariko, where there was a summer house often used in the royal family's vacations and, most important of all, putting together a search party for the missing princess. Among the flurry of activity, she managed to find a second to grab hold of Link's arm and spin him around to face her.

"Evacuation order applies to you, too. I'm letting you off with a warning this time." she continued. "Simple forgery-men such as yourself have no business setting foot in the castle, much less without an invitation." Then she turned back to the raging fire, picking up a bucket to throw at an idle guard.

"But-" Link tried to protest.

"Hylia above, no buts about it!" Impa yelled, watching the guard jump as the bucket hit his helmet, knocking it askew. "Get your arse to Kakariko, now, before I kick it there!"

Link, subdued, turned and ran in the general direction of his house, the earlier events of the day running through his head. How could the princess have gotten out of a tower that high? Apart from drifting down on a curtain, there was no way out of such a tall building. She evidently hadn't done that, as she wasn't with the king and queen as they got into the royal carriage, and they looked rather distraught about it. Of course, that could also be caused by the fact that the entire city of Hyrule was most likely going to be burnt to ashes – the royal guardsmen were trained to fight, not douse fires, and there were very little firefighters in the city at the moment: they were out at war, putting out catapults set alight by fire arrows.

What even started the fire?

Link reached his house and burst inside, Navi flitting in just behind him and flying into the next room. Link grabbed a small shoulder sack and haphazardly stuffed some clothes and provisions in – Kakariko was several miles away, and without a horse, it would take a couple days journey to get there. To add to the difficulty of the journey, it was getting into winter, and while the sun was shining now, there was much less daylight hours that they could use to travel.

Navi slowly hovered back into the room, carrying a small traveling sword with the help of some magic. Link nodded to the fairy, taking the sword and quickly strapping it to his back. He had made it just in case he decided to do some exploring around Hyrule Field – Bokoblins and (rarely) Moblins wandered the field year-round, posing a threat to any unprepared traveler. He never thought he'd actually use it though, as he didn't get much time for vacation, and whenever he did, he tended to spend it either asleep, or just lounging around against a tree with Navi napping on his shoulder.

Grabbing a couple bottles, Link rushed outside and around the back of the house, where there was a good size stream of water, clean enough to drink. He filled the bottles with the water; it took longer than usual as the stream was lower than normal, presumably because of the guards filling buckets from the well that connected to the stream farther up it. Once the bottles were filled, Link jammed a cork into both of them and ran back inside, where Navi was adding a couple extra food items to the sack. Tossing the bottles in the sack, he closed it up and threw it over his shoulder, ready to go. After checking over the house, knowing it would probably be the last time he saw it for a while, if it even survived the fire, he stepped outside and closed the door, giving it a small pat. He then made sure Navi was with him and set out towards Kakariko.

* * *

After the first hour, Navi stopped flying and settled down on Link's shoulder, quietly humming a little tinkling song to herself. Link paid no attention to this fact; Navi weighed only a few grams, so he hardly even felt her land. Besides, the combined weight of the sword on his back on the sack hanging on his other shoulder was consuming more of his attention, as the sack seemed to somehow be getting heavier. But that was probably just him.

Link enjoyed walks like this. Generally the walks he would take – accompanied by Navi of course – weren't several days long or caused by an entire city burning down, but that was besides the point. He enjoyed how beautifully empty Hyrule Field could be, and yet still be full to the brim with life. It calmed him, especially after particularly frustrating days in the forge. He especially liked to walk by the river, which was about a half mile east from his current position. The sound of the flowing water was soothing and invigorating to him at the same time.

The two were watching a particularly small squirrel skitter up the side of tree and turn around to chitter madly at them when Navi suddenly flew up from her resting place on Link's shoulder and yanked back on his hair sharply, channeling as much magic as she could into the pull while still maintaining flight, trying to make herself even in the least bit influential. She only managed to make Link stumble a little bit and yelp at the sudden yank.

"Ow, Nav-" he called out before seeing the reason she had stopped him and immediately listened to Navi's silent plea for him to shut up, for which she thanked Nayru. At the bottom of the hill that they had just gotten to the crest of, was a camp of Bokoblins. Right now, they were all facing away from Link, watching a campfire that was lit and cooking a large steak, still dripping with the blood of the animal it belonged to. There was also another Bokoblin atop a small tower, presumably a lookout.

Alone, a Bokoblin was hardly a problem to get rid of. They weren't known for their speed, so if you could run fast enough, they would eventually give up chasing you and carry on to easier prey. If they somehow caught up with you, a couple well-placed sword swipes would send them running away. Because of this downfall – as well as others, not being very good fighters being one of the foremost of these – Bokoblins had recently stopped travelling or even living alone. They began travelling or setting up camps in packs that could range from two or three to twenty, sometimes even getting closer to the thirties on rare occasions. And one man versus thirty is not a winning match for the one man. Even if the thirty are bad at fighting.

There were four Bokoblins in the camp at the base of the hill. Three were sitting around the campfire, cheerfully telling each other stories in some primitive language that Link didn't understand in the least. He ducked down quickly as one of the Bokoblins jumped up and became very animated in his story, obviously acting out the part of someone quite angry, as he was stomping his foot on the ground and mock gesturing angrily at his two companions. At least, Link thought it was all an act.

The final Bokoblin was up on top the lookout tower, and was currently looking in the opposite direction of Link. Link made of a mental note of all the weapons in the camp. The was a crudely carved club leaning against a fallen log, right beside a shield that looked like it was made of bark. It wouldn't hold up long to his sword, if it came to fighting. Beside the shield was a spear made of a tree branch. It was stuck point end down into the ground. There was another spear, but it appeared to be being used as the spit that the steak was on. The Bokoblin on top the tower appeared to have a bow in it's hand as well.

Any thought of going around the camp had been cut off. A couple miles earlier, the land to his right had risen up into a large cliff, and the river that had been half a mile to the east was now a few meters to the east; the winding of the river had brought it much closer to Link, which he suddenly was not nearly as happy about anymore.

He was very much stumped as to how to proceed when Navi floated closer to Link's ear and spoke in a low whisper. "I don't know if this is the best idea, but the cliff looks quite climbable here. If we're quiet enough, we could climb right over them and keep going like nothing happened." Looking over to his right, he saw that the cliff was indeed climbable. Towards the middle it got a little steeper, but that was the only problem with it. After all, it was that or take a swim partway down the river. And the river looked exceptionally cold today. Tightening his satchel a little, Link walked over to the cliff and began climbing.

Hyrule is not well known for its predictable weather. In fact, other than in the middle of summer, there could be sudden weather changes that could spoil an entire family picnic in the span of thirty seconds. A beautiful sunny day could suddenly turn into a torrential downpour, soaking even the most well prepared traveler. And during the end of autumn and through winter, the weather, while being more cold and rain oriented, was even more sporadic. So it was that Link winced when the first couple of droplets hit his head. They were large and cold, and the sudden grey sky promised much more rain to come.

Link made a valiant attempt to stay on the cliff. The rain started to come down harder, soaking the rock wall and running down it, making it slick and difficult to hold on. He was reaching farther down the wall when he heard a _tink_ of metal hitting rock and spun his head around to see what had happened. All he saw was the shaft of an arrow that was sticking out of a crack in the cliff. Startled, Link craned his head around to look behind him. The Bokoblin on top the tower had his bow raised and an arrow pulled back to shoot again. Shutting one eye to aim, the Bokoblin let the arrow fly, straight towards Link's head.

It was also at this moment that the rain caused Link to slip off the side of the cliff.

He landed sharply on his back, knocking the wind out of him. He was dimly aware of Navi using magic to stop the arrow from falling tip down on him. Then he heard a very loud horn give out some sort of battle cry, bringing him back to the present. Taking a deep breath, Link shoved himself back up to his feet. Reaching back, he clumsily jerked his sword out of it's sheath and held it in front of him, searching for the Bokoblins that should be all over him by now. Noting that Navi was successfully distracting the archer, he trotted towards the main camp.

Having heard the battle horn, the Bokoblins were gathering up their weapons; one Bokoblin being strangely absent. One of the Bokoblins grabbed the spear and ran up to stab Link with it, but he jumped out of the way quickly so that the spear only gave him a scratch and brought his sword down on the Bokoblin's hand, causing him to drop the spear and hold his hand in pain. Link went to stab the Bokoblin, but the other one had finished grabbing the club and the shield and smacked him on the leg, messing his footing up and saving his companion's life for the moment.

Link had fallen down; the blow from the club had knocked his feet out from out of under him. As he fell, he heard something fly through the air directly behind his head, and the Bokoblin with the club fell to the ground with a cry. He didn't get back up. Looking over at the fallen foe, Link saw that there was an arrow embedded into his chest, which was evidently meant for him. Navi suddenly popped up in front of him, apologizing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't distract him anymore, he figured out that I was a distrac- WATCH OUT!"

Link rolled to his left, just as the remaining Bokoblin jammed his spear into the ground where he had just been. Frustrated, it tugged at the spear, only succeeding in breaking the spear in half. Stomping in anger, it grabbed the club of it's dead comrade as Link jumped to his feet. Turning towards Link, the Bokoblin was almost steaming in anger. It charged towards him, screaming and holding the club in the air above it's head. Link took this opportunity to stab at the Bokoblin's unguarded torso, impaling it on his sword as the absent Bokoblin walked back into the camp, back from whatever he had gone to do. Seeing the situation, both the new Bokoblin and the archer Bokoblin abandoned hope and fled, almost tripping over themselves.

Seeing no immediate threat, Link pulled his sword of the dead Bokoblin and sat down to be sick.

 **Hey guys! I did not mean for this chapter to take this long, but here it is finally! Sorry. Now I need to go work on One Hundred Times Determination.**

 **See y'all next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Cloaks

Link stared into the fire, occasionally glancing at the few sparks that would get spat out of it, watching them spiral down to the ground and sizzle themselves out. He shuffled across the ground, positioning himself closer to the fire, seeking refuge from the ever falling rain in the warmth of the flames. Having been soaked through, he had been surprised that the two of them had even started a fire, as the weather seemed intent on ending any sort of attempt of lighting any combustible item aflame. Link was more intent on having his fire, and with much trial and error, he finally managed to light one. And now here he was. Still being a little bit sick.

Navi flopped down on Link's shoulder, her glow dimmed slightly because of the rain. For a while they just sat there like that. They had already made themselves an impromptu dinner out of the provisions in the satchel; they also had taken the dead Bokoblins and had buried them under a few fallen branches that they had found. They couldn't travel safely in this downpour, as they wouldn't be able to see any approaching Bokoblins or thieves, and it was just plain miserable to travel in a downpour of this magnitude. Eventually, Navi spoke up.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a small voice, concerned.

Link turned his head slightly to glance at Navi before turning it back to look at the fire. "Nothing's wrong, don't worry." he responded, stirring up the fire with a stick.

Navi huffed, and Link felt her sit up a little straighter; if he had been looking at her, he might have seen through her dimmed glow that she had crossed her arms. "We both know that something's bothering you, denial or not." she said.

Link stopped poking the fire and laid the stick to the side. He kept looking directly at the fire, obviously avoiding Navi's statement. After around five minutes of silence, Navi was about to give up and forget about the conversation, but Link started speaking, telling her what was bothering him.

"I killed them." he blurted out, hugging his legs closer to him.

"What?" Navi asked, confused.

"The Bokoblins." Link continued. "I killed them without a second thought. Like they were a bug, with no feelings at all."

Navi stuttered, not sure how make her friend feel better. "B-but, you make things that kill all the time. You don't feel bad while you hammer a sword into shape."

"Making a weapon to kill and killing something yourself are very different." Link said, turning to the satchel beside him and rummaging around in it. "You don't feel like you've ended a life when you finish a sword." Pulling a hood out of the satchel, Link put it over his head and tightened the knot, shielding his head from the rain. Navi grabbed some of the fabric that fell down over Link's back and draped it over her own head, keeping her front side still visible. Her glow almost instantly brightened.

"Do we really even know if Bokoblins have anything other than instincts? That they have feelings such love or loss?" Navi asked slowly after a few moments of silence. Link tensed a bit and Navi thought that he was going to take offense at her suggestion. But he slowly softened again after a few minutes. Navi sat in the renewed silence, listening to the patter of the rain hitting the ground.

After about half a minute, Link sighed. "We don't know anything about instincts in Bokoblins and the sort." he said. "And I know it probably sounds stupid, but I can't help but feel bad about killing something that acts so much like Hylians." he finished. He listened to the crackle of the fire for a couple minutes before getting up and digging around in the satchel for a bedroll. Navi pulled the edge of his hood tighter around herself and watched as Link laid it out on the ground.

Braving the rain for the few seconds she would have to be in it, Navi hopped off Link's shoulder and allowed him to lie down on the bedroll and get himself comfortable. Once he'd stopped moving Navi dropped back down onto his arm, gathering some of the hood fabric she had covered herself with earlier and curling up in it again to keep watch. She didn't need to sleep. Fairies needed much less sleep then Hylians did, and she caught the occasional nap throughout the day.

And the least she could do to repay Link was to watch over him at night.

* * *

 _Darkness. Fear. Fear. Darkness._

 _No._

 _No, wait._

 _This had happened before, hadn't it?_

 _Remember… Try to remember…_

 _Ah! Yes, it was behind me last time, was it not?_

Link whipped himself around in the endless black, once again to see the monstrosity that awoke him last time. It was just as big and ominous as last time as well.

" _Welcome back to the land of the sleeping!_ " the monstrosity said, seemingly in good spirits at this time of night. " _Did you have fun in that burning castle?_ "

After a few seconds of initial shock – which the mountain monster waited out quite patiently – Link finally got himself back together enough to respond: "Seriously? This again? Can't you just leave me alone, random dream monster that suddenly popped into my life?" he grumbled, glancing around quite pointlessly; there really was nothing else to see apart from the giant thing in front of him. "And to answer your question: no, I did not in fact have fun in that castle. I never even went in there to have fun." he finished.

" _Oh, I knew_ that _already._ " it dismissively. " _It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else._ "

"So other than to be an object of your amusement, why am I here?" Link asked, more than a little ticked off.

" _Nothing, truly._ " the beast said. It then burst into guffaw that made Link's ears ring. " _Now, let's have some serious talk._ " it continued once it finished laughing. Drawing it's head closer to Link, it's expression changed from happy and cheery to something much more business-like. " _In a couple minutes, a group of people are going to come through the area in which you've set up camp. If you value your sanity, you_ will _follow them. Eventually, you will lose them. At that point in time, I'm sure you will find what you're supposed to do._ " After this, it brought it's head away from Link – to his great relief – and assumed his happy face. " _Toodles!_ " it said, fading slowly into Link's subconscious.

"Wait, what?" Link yelled, throwing himself towards the mountain-beast; a profoundly stupid thing to do, had this not been a dream. However, the monster had already faded, and Link had gone on to different, happier dreams.

* * *

" _H… l…ten… h…y wa… …p._ "

"Hey, wake up!" Navi whispered as loudly as she could. Link jerked awake. It was still dark out. The only light came from Navi, who seemed to be trying to shield her own glow from something. The fire had definitely gone out, and it was still raining. Link rubbed his eyes as Navi tugged at his hood, trying to conceal herself further. "Listen, we need to move." Navi said quickly. "Now."

"What? Why?" Link asked, still groggy and half-asleep.

"Someone's coming," Navi was attempting to stuff herself in the small crevice between the hood's fabric and the back of Link's neck. It wasn't working very well, but it was waking Link up at least. "They don't exactly look friendly."

Link fully woke up and looked in what he assumed to be a northern direction. Sure enough, several little flickers of torchlight were breaking through the darkness and rain. There was a large pink ambient glow above the group of torchlights, but he paid little attention to that, as he was already moving to grab his things and get out of the way.

Quickly rolling up the bedroll, Link snatched his satchel without closing it and slung it over his shoulder. His sheathed sword, which had been laying beside the satchel, levitated with a small outline of blue; Navi's work. Still crouched down, Link looked around for a suitable spot to hide. To his right was the cliff, but there was also a tree just in front of the cliff, definitely wide enough to hide himself behind. Quietly but quickly, he ran, crouched, along the ground towards the tree, levitating sword in tow.

Pulling himself behind the tree, Link set the satchel down and stuffed the bedroll into it, tying it shut. Grabbing the floating sword, he threw the straps over his shoulder and under his arm, and as quietly as he could, did up the buckle. He then poked his head around the edge of the tree, just far enough for him to watch the approaching troupe of beings.

As the group passed by them, Link examined them from his hidden position. They all wore cloaks to protect against the rain that had large hoods which came down far enough to obscure their faces, so he couldn't make out any actual identities. He squinted at some of the markings on the groups cloaks. He couldn't quite make out what the markings belonged to, but they reminded him of something. Something that he felt he should know, but just couldn't put his finger on.

"We need to follow them." Navi whispered suddenly, with an air of finality.

"Why?" Link whispered back, before just seeing Navi's tiny hand pointing towards a giant floating pink crystal, probably the source of the glow that he had seen but hadn't paid any attention to. There were a few of the cloaked group with different markings on their cloaks directly underneath the crystal, holding their arms upwards towards it, and there were tendrils of glowing energy shooting from their palms into the crystal, carrying it with them.

Squinting a little, Link could just make out a silhouette inside the crystal. It resembled a younger Hylian, probably in a dress. They were lying with their hands clasped over their breast; they probably weren't conscious. "Who's in that crystal?" Link muttered to Navi, hoping against hope that he wouldn't have to listen to the beast of his dreams.

Navi hesitated for a second before replying. "It's… It's Zelda, the princess."

Link sighed internally, knowing that he definitely should follow the crowd of cloaks, if there was even a slight chance of saving the princess from her captors. Throwing the strap of his satchel over his head to rest on his shoulder, he watched the passing crowd. He would have charged in with his sword drawn, as the cloaked beings didn't appear armed, but they could easily overwhelm him with shear numbers alone. And on second thought, those cloaks could easily hide a weapon.

After about a minute, the beings had passed. Navi advised waiting another minute before following, so as to keep enough distance between them and the crowd. So after another minute of tense waiting, Link got up and walked over to their campout site. Looking to the south, he could see the torches being carried by the crowd. He focused more on the crystal that was now their goal more than anything else in the world for as long they knew it's location.

Shifting his sword a bit, Link began following them.

 **Hello again everybody! This was not supposed to take as long as it did, and I apologize for the wait. But it's here now, right? This is also the first thing posted under this username!**

 **I need to make my chapters longer…**


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